Call for applications: https://9eqnmuz49ro.typeform.com/to/oK9iPwRV
Thanks to generous financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Analysis Group, and the Aphorism Foundation, this program will support dissertation fellowships for PhD students in economics and economics-adjacent fields (such as health policy and public policy) who are interested in spending a year of their PhD doing economic policy research in collaboration with one of:
- Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
- Congressional Research Service (CRS)
- Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC)
These fellowships are residential at the relevant agency, with students adhering to the same in-person work expectations as agency staff.
PhD students will be assigned a mentor from the agency, and will be matched with a project of interest to the agency. There is a good faith understanding that selected projects will ideally be chosen to, in expectation, include a component that can be transferable into outside, public research that can be part of the fellow’s PhD dissertation.
The program will also assign each fellow an academic faculty mentor (who agrees to meet with the fellow at least quarterly) with the goal of providing fellows with a connection to an academic researcher who is interested in mentoring students with interests in a blended career in research and policy.
Applicants must be enrolled as full-time Ph.D. students at a U.S. or Canadian university and must have advanced to dissertation candidacy status by the start of the fellowship period. Eligibility for non-US citizens would be specific to each agency. For example, for CBO eligibility would be limited to a category that is slightly broader than US citizens (it would include permanent residents who are seeking citizenship and certain other asylums and refugees, as outlined in 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3)(B)).
Each fellow will receive a $34,000 stipend, up to $13,000 in tuition support, and up to $1,000 to support one in-person visit with their academic faculty mentor. This stipend level is meant to eliminate the need for fellows to work as a teaching or research assistant during the fellowship period.
Applicants should assemble the following materials in a single PDF file which must be uploaded by midnight EST on Thursday 29 February 2024.
- A cover letter – no more than two pages in length – describing the applicant’s research interests and articulating their motivation for being considered by at least one and up to three of CBO, CRS, and MedPAC. Students interested in being considered for a fellowship to support their participation in CBO’s dissertation fellows program should confirm in their cover letter that they have also applied separately to that program. The cover letter should also include complete contact information for the applicant, and the name of one recommendation letter writer.
- A curriculum vitae and a list of all current and completed PhD courses.
In addition, a short confidential letter of recommendation (no more than half a page) from a current or former PhD advisor, or another scholar familiar with the applicant’s work, should be submitted via e-mail by the same deadline to heidi.lie.williams@dartmouth.edu, with cc: to ulkar.aghayeva@dartmouth.edu.
Applications will be reviewed by a panel consisting of Doug Elmendorf (Harvard Kennedy School), Zach Liscow (Yale Law School), Donald Marron (Urban Institute), Matthew Slaughter (Dartmouth College), and Heidi Williams (Dartmouth College). The panel will make contingent fellowship offers to students that will be awarded if and only if the student receives an offer for a position from one of the participating Congressional support agencies, holding a waitlist of students to make offers to if those contingent fellowship offers are not accepted by a given deadline.
Questions may be addressed to heidi.lie.williams@dartmouth.edu, with cc: to ulkar.aghayeva@dartmouth.edu.
